At this time of year many people say they hope the New Year will be better than the last. They seem to have had a bad time in the year just gone. But did they?

Research has shown that our brains have a negativity bias which means that we are 5 times more likely to remember bad experiences than good ones. This bias dates back to the times when we had to deal with life or death experiences on a daily basis such as a lion or tIger ready to attack us. A sunny day or a beautiful flower was just not as important to our survival.

Luckily our brains have the possibility to adapt through a process, called neuroplasticity. By building stronger pathways for positive experiences we can remember good experiences as often as we remember bad ones and remove the negativity bias. This means potentially this year could be four times as good as last year.

How can we do this? Simply by becoming more aware of what is going on in our lives, of paying attention to the present moment instead of living in the past or the future. When you notice something pleasant happening, someone pays you a compliment, you join the right queue, the sun comes out and you see a rainbow for instance, just notice this and hold it in your mind for just a few seconds. 6 seconds is enough for the experience to transfer into your long term memory. And not only do you get to enjoy this experience but you get to transfer it to your long term memory and it will always be there for you.